Astonishing Spider Man
by EJustin
Summary: Bringing you a darker more mature look at the Spidey-verse, featuring a multitude of villains, some classic some new. A definite must read for any Spidey fan.
1. Default Chapter

Introduction:

Okay, people this is how this baby is going to work out. I'm going to try and update one or twice every week, at the beginning of each new storyline I'll give you a nice little summary. Some of this will be based on current comic continuity but I'll try and make it generally accessible to fans who might have only seen the movie as well. Okay, so let's get started.


	2. Carnage Unleashed 1 of 4

Carnage Unleashed:

The psychotic symbiote Carnage has but one single all-consuming mission in life: To Kill. But when he receives a sudden message while imprisoned at Ravencroft that mission becomes all too personal. Can Spider-Man stop Carnage's latest rampage alone?

Issue One of Four

Ravencroft Asylum:

"She's dying." Cletus Kassidy whispered almost in disbelief inside the confines of the iron-tight cell. Normally at this time of day he preferred to scream out profanities to the guard and make promises of how he'd eviscerate them at a moment's notice; just to keep them on their toes. Cletus very rarely felt anything but murderous glee or furious hate but today he felt speechless, _lost_. The warden, Dr. Kafka had told me the news just an hour ago. His aunt was dying: Cletus had spent years hunting down the members of his family that had survived the original killings that had set him down this horrid path so long ago. She was the only one left, the one who had yet to experience death at his hands.

And that irked him. Cletus grimaced recalling Kafka's exact wording. His aunt had contracted breast cancer, it was quite advance. She only had a month maybe two to live. The whispering in his head grew louder edging him on. He had no inhibitions to resist with, Cletus listened all too willingly.

_We should act._

**Yes, I know. But they have me imprisoned here, restrained by a straight jacket. How can I release you? **

_We flow through your blood, Cletus, wound yourself and we will be free._

**I can't move my arms and this cell's padded? Help me.**

_Bite our tongue, Cletus, bleed._

**Yes. Bite, bleed, bite and bleed.**

---

Downtown Manhattan:

"This sucks. I mean that. This sucks to the tenth power." Peter muttered grimly at the kitchen table in their small but cozy apartment. "Go over this one more time?"

His wife, Mary Jane Watson, sat down beside him on the couch, handing him a hot cup of coffee as she did, "You see when I left California I had not completed several photo shootings. I had talked to the company and told them I was no longer going to be doing work with them and I had _thought_ that was the end of it. Apparently, they didn't see it that way. So what happened was they've decided to sue us because several companies withdrew after they learned I was no longer doing the shooting."

Peter slumped into contours of the couch and took a small sip of his coffee, "Sons of bi-."

"Don't curse." MJ interjected in a rather timely fashion.

"Those are some pricks." Peter declared shortly before sighing in an exasperated manner. "So have you called your lawyer?"

She nodded very candidly, "He say's he can get the case thrown out of court but its going to cost us."

Peter frowned, "How much?"

"About fifty grand he said." She responded. "Let me ask you a question, tiger."

"Shoot."

MJ brushed her long red hair away from her eyes and pursed her lips together and then finally rocked her head back wearily, "How come whenever some wacko like the Rhino or the Juggernaught starts tearing the city up he always crashes into an orphanage or church but they never demolish _any_ of the buildings that these people work in?"

"Because the universe has turned my life into a reality T.V. show." Peter replied in a monotone voice. "At least we know where our savings are going this year."

"Don't shed another hair over this, tiger." Mary Jane leaned in and kissed him on his forehead before heading towards the phone, "We'll get through this."

Peter smiled. Mary Jane, his sunshine, the eternal optimist, a perfect foil for his doom and gloom predisposition. _Thank God for her_.

"I think I'm going to go out for a swing." He declared heading for the closet, "I need to clear my head."

"Okay, Pete." She replied dialing in the number for their lawyer, "Be careful. Love you."

"Ditto." He chimed in reaching for the familiar crimson mask.

---

Ravencroft Asylum:

The door to Cletus' cell burst open and slammed violently against the brick interior sending debris everywhere. The three guards outside of his cell twirled around as Carnage emerged in his glorious true form. "Hi boys, figure I'd go out for a stroll."

A hideous cackle burst out from his black mouth before tendrils suddenly lashed out from his torso literally dicing one guard apart in seconds. The other two opened fire with their automatic rifles pumping rounds into the symbiote as quickly as their guns could muster.

With amazing speed, Carnage dodged the bullets while moving in on his prey. Turning his hand into a sharp blade he thrust it through the guard's neck and twisted it around sending his head cleanly off. He eviscerated the other and in less than thirty seconds it was all over.

Carnage stood there for a moment, caught in his deadly pose and savored the moment in its unbridled brutality. It was an art-form: death he meant. Anyone could kill, but it took a unique talent to bring it out to its fullest, to appreciate it. He made it a ballet, carefully orchestrated, powerfully brilliant, almost beautiful in a way.

Guards began to flood down the corridor towards him. Fresh fodder was what they were. The ballet could continue.

---

Less than a mile away

Peter landed on the ledge with more grace than the best Olympic athletes. But he certainly didn't feel that way. This business over a lawsuit bothered him. He and MJ had just finished getting their financial situation in order; they had considered buying a home and now all that planning out the window. He wanted to hit something, when was the Shocker when you needed him?

Mary Jane had seemed so sure, he wished he could have shared the sentiment. But Parker luck had been running its course thus far, one hundred percent true to form. If only he could find a condemned building to take out his frustrations on.

Suddenly, his spider-sense flared ever so slightly and alerted him to action taking place not to far away, in the direction of Ravencroft. _Shriek is probably on the loose or something. Maybe that's what I need. Some second-rate loser to make an idiot out of, make a few cracks and be home in an hour, piece of cake. _


	3. Carnage Unleashed 2 of 4

Carnage Unleashed:

Issue Two of Four

The Parker Home

Mary Jane ran up the figures and went methodically through the numbers. There was just no way they could afford the legal fees, but what choice did she have? The company wanted her to return and finish up the photo shoots that had been part of their original contract before she had called it off.

Running up what they said she owed them it turned out that would take her a little over four months of photo shoot. Meaning that she'd have to quit play she had recently agreed to work on. There had to be another way out of this. "Think girl, _think_."

Why was this happening to them? She and Peter were just finally getting things back in order. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't-. _Stop whining._ MJ commanded herself. _Keep focused, girl. You whine and all that's going to happen is that you'll become miserable. Crying won't fix this problem; you have to fix this problem_.

Mrs. Parker stretched her arms out for a bit and went back to the numbers. She was going to figure this out…for both their sakes.

---

Near the Brooklyn Bridge

Carnage stomped down the narrow street headed for his old neighborhood, his journey had thus far been a bloodless one save for except one instance. Some D-level superhero squad calling themselves the Justice Fighters had tried to test their mettle against him. He did have to give the big guy credit; opening up his rib-cage had been exceptionally difficult.

He couldn't waste much more time. It wouldn't be long before some _real_ super goons showed up like the Avengers or X-Men or…

"Hey, Cletus, I don't suppose you're out looking for a psychiatrist."

Carnage grimaced, "Spider-Man." He spun around and found the arachnid hanging from a lamp-post, "Get out of here wall-crawler, this doesn't concern you!"

"Hold on there, reality check." Peter interjected, "You just slaughtered a bunch of innocent people there. Um, let me check if that's my business. Well, look at that, it is. So what about I kick your ass and we call it a day."

"I'll rip you in two and use your skull like a toilet!" Carnage responded taking on an aggressive posture.

Peter shrugged, "Hey, I didn't know you'd gotten a job at the Post Office, Cletus. Good for you."

A tendril lanced out from Carnage's fore-arm and unsuccessfully swiped at Spider-Man who managed to dodge it with ease. The latter leapt off of the post and landed a diving kick across Cletus' jaw sending him sprawling across the street.

"How about I go easy on you this time around? You can head back to prison and we'll pretend this never happened." Carnage's hands transformed into axe-like appendages, "Or not."

Peter dove in and slipped in with a barrage of rapid punches. Carnage grunted from the strikes but managed to recover in less than an instant. He swung wildly missing Spider-Man by mere centimeters. Peter performed a back-flip landing seven feet away from the super-powered lunatic.

Carnage grinned and immediately made a wall with his symbiote and projected it over to his adversary within seconds. The red-slimy wall slammed against Peter's chest throwing him through a store window with violent force.

He crashed against a candy display and came to a stop amid a pile of debris. Peter slowly rose back up to his feet and peered through the breach he had made only to see Carnage moving on.

"That's weird." He remarked stumbling out of the store, "Except for the guards at Ravencroft and those Justice dudes, Cletus hasn't touched a single person, definitely not his style." He fired a web-line and swung down the street with amazing speed, gaining lost ground with seconds and came down on Carnage's back with a double-stomp that sent the symbiote crashing down into the street face-first. Peter pushed off and landed on top of a car along the edge of the street.

"It'd be better for everyone if you just let me go on my way." Carnage exclaimed getting back up.

Peter grimaced, "You know I can't do that."

Cletus smirked, "I know." His hand transformed into an axe and lurched forward cutting the car Spider-Man stood on in two. Peter was already twirling in the air and came down behind Cletus with inhuman agility.

The battle raged on without stop. Spider-Man continued to land blows where he found them while Carnage used the blades formed by his symbiote recklessly tearing apart the very landscape around them.

Finally, Peter and Cletus found themselves on opposite ends of a war-torn street. Smoke spewed from wrecked cars. They faced off. Each showing no signs of flinching with each determined to see the other fall. And then they charged forward. A scream of madness emerged from Cletus' mouth while Peter remained deadly silent.

And just as they closed striking distance, Spider-Man somersaulted, while Carnage's blades cut through the air. And when it was over, Cletus was standing.

Peter came crashing down against the asphalt, blood seeping through a cut in his mask. He was motionless. Carnage grinned widely and turned away from his defeated foe. The bridge would be coming soon and after that it wouldn't be much further to his aunt's home.

---

The Parker Home

Mary Jane looked over the numbers, not one iota better for her efforts and then the television which had been playing irrelevantly in the back suddenly caught her attention with the words, "Spider-Man."

She spun around to a split-screen image of her husband beside that of the murdering psychopath only known as Carnage.

"For those of you just joining us, Cletus Kassidy escaped from Ravencroft less than two hours ago." The news reporter went on while the images dominated the screen. "The Justice Fighters who attempted to confront Kassidy were killed. Spider-Man then arrived on scene where he and Kassidy got into a physical confrontation with one another. We're receiving some sketchy reports that Kassidy may have also killed Spider-Man."

The phone rang. MJ rushed over to it and picked it up, "May?" She asked almost in a panic and indeed it was the elderly woman.

"Are you watching the news?" Peter's aunt inquired while her voice trembled.

"I just caught it." MJ quickly responded.

May seemed to pause, still in shock, "What…do you think he's okay?

"He has to be." Mary Jane answered back trying to sound confident and failing miserably. She took in a deep breath and whispered so May couldn't hear her, "Come on, Peter."


	4. Carnage Unleashed 3 of 4

Carnage Unleashed

Issue Three of Four

The Brooklyn Bridge

_I have no right to be doing this. _Peter fired a web-line soaring high over the jam of cars stuck in their tracks below him._ I have a wife. This is kiddy stuff. I'm playing cops and robbers. _He considered turning back for a moment, running away. _Of course that's not really an option. Not with him out there. The least I can do is find a payphone and call her. Let her know, she deserves at least that much…Jesus, what I put that woman through_.

The Parker Home

Mary Jane turned the television off. She couldn't bear to listen anymore and turned to the stack of papers on the table and put pen to paper, doing anything would be better than just waiting, at least if only to get her mind off of the subject. And with the first stroke of her pen, MJ cast it aside and clasped her face in her hands, muffling her cries.

The sudden ringing of the phone jolted her back to her senses and sucking up her grief she walked over to the phone and placed the receiver against her ear, "Hello?"

"MJ?"

"Peter? Oh my God." Mary Jane exhaled in relief, "Peter, I was so afraid; they were saying you were dead."

He snickered on his end of the line, "They like to do that whenever they think they need a ratings boost…I'm okay, I just got a little cut on the head is all."

A silence set in for a moment. There was no need to communicate Peter's intentions, MJ knew him well enough, "Good luck, tiger."

"Thanks…listen, babe, I've got to go."

Brooklyn

The season veteran officer barked into the horn demandingly, "I repeat put your hands up in the air, lie down on your belly an-. Jesus Christ!"

Carnage began to slice and dice his way through the police force that had arrived to halt his progress. "You guys can't be serious." The murdering psychopath mocked, "I took on the Silver Surfer once! Compared to him you guys aren't even an ant hill."

An evisceration here, a decapitation there, the scene was a grisly one. "When is the Army supposed to get here?" One officer cried held up behind his patrol car listening helplessly to the slaughter in progress.

Carnage sliced another policeman in half. "You're pathetic all of you. I should kill your children on principle alone!"

Two web-lines attached themselves to Carnage's back and violently pulled on him slamming him against the exterior of an apartment building. "I think its time you took some deep breaths and relaxed, Kassidy. You're way too high-strung for a guy your age." Peter exclaimed from the rooftop of the tenement.

Carnage spun around in shock and sneered at the arachnid vigilante. He ripped the webbing off his back and with alarming speed crawled up the side of the building and joined his nemesis on the roof. "Didn't I kill you?" He asked pointing to the cut in Spider-Man's mask.

Peter back-peddled trying to keep his distance from the powerful symbiote. "Close but no cigar." He replied even while blood trickled from the open wound.

Frustrated, Carnage sprung forward swinging his two blade-like appendages. Peter escaped with a back-flip and landed on adjacent roof which Carnage followed him onto.

"Why are you doing this, Cletus?" Peter said warily maintaining his distance. "This isn't like the other times you've gotten out. What's this all about?"

For a moment, Carnage took on almost a humble appearance, "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Peter responded.

"Never." Carnage whispered painfully, "Stop trying to distract me!"

Peter fired a spray of webbing that enveloped Carnage's upper-torso. While the latter struggled to break free, Peter rushed in and unleashed a massive attack. Carnage screamed in pain as literally dozens of punches found their mark across his face.

**He's going to beat us! We can't let him; we have to get to her! **

_We know! _

**We're losing! **

_Focus, Cletus! Focus! _

Carnage suddenly nailed Spider-Man in the jaw with his heel and with a roar of anger ripped through the webbing. "We're _both_ thoroughly sick of you, web-head!" He grabbed Peter's ankle and slammed him against the surface of the roof. "Now." Carnage then rammed him against a chimney, "Leave." Against the floor again, "Us." And in an instant of unbridled rage, "Alone!" He flung Peter off the roof. The superhero soared through the air like a comet and smashed right into a building across the street.

**He's not dead.**

"I know."

**You don't have much time.**

"I know."

**Move, now! **

Carnage fled.

Four minutes later

Meanwhile, Peter finally began to come to. When he woke he found a little girl staring at him with a teddy bear in her arms, "Hello."

"Hi." Peter slowly rose up to his knees and looked out the breach from his entry, "Sorry about the wall."

"That's okay." The little girl replied, her eyes as wide as saucers. "Hear this is yours." She said handing him his mask.

Peter froze for a moment suddenly feeling naked and took the mask from her, "Is your mommy or daddy home?"

"Not right now." She answered.

He sighed uneasily, "Listen; let's keep the part about me being without my mask just between us, can you do that?"

"Yes." The girl stood there for a moment while Peter finally stood upright, "I put a band-aid on your boo-boo."

Peter touched the band-aid and smiled, "Thanks." He pulled the mask back over his head, "Did you see where the red man went?"

"That way." The girl said pointing towards some buildings in the distance.

"Sorry about the wall again." He leapt out of the apartment and begun to swing down the street on a direct collision course with Carnage.


	5. Carnage Unleashed 4 of 4

Carnage Unleashed

Issue Four of Four

Brooklyn

_Cletus Kassidy. If you ever see him on the street kiss your butt goodbye, because chances are he's not out on good behavior. He was dangerous before he joined with the Symbiote to become Carnage, but that pair... In a sick way, they're a couple, the kind that you envy because they were practically made for the other. You know what that's like, right? I'm sure you've seen them before, at birthdays or Christmas parties. Of course, something tells me, Cletus' idea of Christmas is a little bit different from yours and mine. _

"Fall damn it! Fall down you bastard!" Peter exclaimed hitting Carnage's back with a fire-hydrant. The symbiote crashed down to his knees and agony and grunted while Spider-Man continued his assault with his improvised weapon.

With every strike, the hydrant dented further and further inward. Carnage grimaced and swung his scythe-like arm along the surface of the street.

Peter barely escaped with a back-flip that had him landing on the roof of a parked car. He fired a web-line aimed at Carnage's eyes. The latter would have none of it and caught the strand of webbing in mid-air. He tugged on it forcefully sending Spider-Man towards him like a missile only for Carnage to send the web-spinner down to the asphalt with a violent round-house kick.

Victoriously, the Symbiote roared at the sea of cars that surrounded them, their occupants watching in stunned awe. And as Carnage noticed a city bus stuck in the traffic jam a devious smile began to slowly creep across his face.

With an aching head, Peter came to amidst the sound of Carnage's cackling. "Let me guess. You just discovered the beauty of laughter and are ready to surrender."

Carnage stood over him, with a bus full of passengers in his hands. "This is your stop." He smashed the bus directly onto Peter. The force of the impact knocked Carnage down to his feet and literally cracked the street. He rose and without a moment's hesitation lifted the bus again, "Next time you might want to take the express line." Carnage flung the bus through the air like a rag doll.

With an explosion of glass, Spider-Man emerged from a window in the bus immediately spinning around. He fired two lines of webbing, using the first to anchor himself against a building and the second to catch the bus just in time to save it from crashing into a pack of cars. Peter carefully lowered the bus onto the street and turned only to find the symbiote had escaped once again. He took a deep breath of air, braced himself against his knees and lamented, "If Carnage doesn't kill me, trying to keep up with him _will_."

The Home of Jane Kassidy

Carnage quietly opened the door of his aunt's home. A nurse immediately approached him, "Excuse me, you are who?" She inquired accusatorially. He immediately slashed her neck with a quick motion of his talon-like fingers.

"I'm her nephew." He replied as she gurgled frantically in the final moments of her life. The symbiote seemed to recede into his skin, leaving only Cletus in his orange prison jumpsuit. He proceeded, almost tip-toeing like a child afraid to wake up his parents. Cletus grabbed a small knife from the kitchen.

The murderer entered the bedroom and found his aunt, Jane, lying in bed, tubes coming from her every orifice, hooking her up into a plethora of machines. There was a pile of bloody sheets to the side of her bed that had yet to be cleaned.

"Cletus…is that you?" His aunt asked, her every word carried by painful expressions. "I was wondering when you'd come for me."

"I left as soon as I heard." He replied coming to her bedside.

She smiled and brushed the side of his face with her shriveled hand, "I knew you'd come."

"What choice did I have?"

"I wish I could have been there when you needed me." She replied stricken with grief, "I wish I could have been there to stop your father from doing what he did. I'm so sorry, Cletus, I should have done more."

"I am what I have always been, nothing could have changed that."

His aunt nodded her head slowly, "Perhaps…did you know when you were a small little boy you wanted to be a doctor. You wanted to _save_ lives."

Cletus nodded in a manner almost surreal, "I remember."

"Such lost opportunities." She frowned, "I weep for you, Cletus; you should have been so much more."

"We both knew that this was the only outcome, I…tried to avoid it, but I can't. This is how it is. I destroy _everything_ I touch, it is my nature…Are you ready?" He inquired as his eyes began to fill with tears and his hands trembled.

She nodded, "I am."

"You were the only one that was ever _nice _to me." He tightened his hold on the knife and carefully inserted it into her neck. A quiet exhale emerged from her lips and then…nothing. He placed his head against her chest and began to cry. He wanted her back; he wanted it to be all right. But it was far too late for that, his path was set.

Finally composing himself, he said, "This was a very private matter." Cletus exclaimed turning his attention to a dark corner of the ceiling where Spider-Man had hid thus far, "You've witnessed the fulfillment of the Cletus family legacy: Unproductive, self-destructive madness."

"This was a mercy killing?" Peter asked.

"No." Cletus replied scornfully, "I don't kill out of _mercy_. She had to die, that was inescapable, and if it hadn't been today it would have been tomorrow or the day after. But I will say that I'm glad her death came with a release. She was a strong woman; she didn't deserve to die hooked up to machines. Even I didn't do her the respect necessary."

"What now? Do you turn big bad and ugly and we toss down again?" Peter inquired warily.

Cletus grimaced, "I hate to say this, but for the first time in my life, I've had my day's fill of killing. I'm going back."

He rocked his head back, somewhat suspicious, "After you've killed so many people? I can't just let you walk away like this."

"And what will you do? You're not a killer, the worst you'll do is beat me within an inch of my life. And what will that accomplish?" Cletus inquired of the battered and bruised superhero, "Let things be, Spider-Man, for now at least." He headed out of the bedroom but stopped suddenly at the doorway, "Just don't take this momentary reprieve the wrong way and think I'm going soft. Soon, today will be in the past."

The Parker Home

Peter followed Cletus' every movement until he was finally picked up by two squads of SWAT and taken to Riker's Island where he was immediately imprisoned in their Z block, a facility designed specifically to hold super-powered criminals. There was no telling how long he'd be there, Peter wagered at least until Cletus grew bored with being cooped up.

About an hour later, he slipped into his apartment through the window. He found Mary Jane passed out on the couch in front of the television feeding new reports concerning Carnage's capture. He shed his costume and stared at his naked frame in the mirror. Bruises and gashes marked his skin, sweat still dripped from his hair.

MJ appeared behind him, her eyes full of relief and gently wrapped her arms around him, "You're home, Peter, rest."

---The End---

Coming Next: The Spider and The Man


	6. The Spider and the Man 1 of 3

The Spider and the Man:

From the viewpoint of the average man, a superhero's job is an easy one. He shows up, beats up the criminals and thugs, makes up some clever one-liner, leaves and that's it. All in a day's work for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man…Isn't it? What if there was more to it than that?

Issue One of Three

Spider

The Parker Home

Peter slipped in through the window of his apartment, his costume was drenched in sweat and he could feel a cold already coming on. He cursed himself for not wearing underwear, especially with it so frosty outside. But then again, the extra weight would have thrown his balance while swinging off. Better to be sick for a couple of days than go splat on the street, he told himself.

"Is that you, tiger?" Mary Jane called from the den.

"Yes." Peter replied pulled his mask off and stretching his arms out wearily, "I just got back." He walked into the den, to find Mary Jane sitting on the floor surrounded by financial papers. "Made any progress?" Suddenly, he felt guilty, she was here slaving over trying to find a solution out of this mess, and here he was going out for joy-rides.

MJ yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes, "No…You're okay? You look worse than I feel."

"I've had a rough week that's finally coming to an end." Peter responded, his face betraying a number of somber emotions.

"What happened?" MJ inquired.

He shrugged, "Just—I don't know. I don't want to bother you, you're busy."

"I could use a rest." MJ responded, "I'll get a cup of coffee brewing, you can tell me while we wait."

Peter sighed, "Yeah, ok." He leaned his head back, "You know, it days like the last couple ones I've had…they really make you think, you know? About this crime-fighting business, I mean. Funny, when this started I thought it'd be routine, clean and dry. It was anything but…"

Several days ago in Harlem

"You ready to go through with this, man?" Tyrone asked pulling the bandana over the lower half of his face, "It's going to be some pretty hardcore shit, man."

Jacob's eyes darted up nervously, "I-I don't know."

"Man, you better be ready." Tyrone exclaimed rather exasperated, "The second those Crips come out of that door, we bust a cap in every one of those sucker's heads. You're not having second thoughts are you?"

"I am." Jacob shamefully admitted, "I mean…I don't know if I want to go through with this. I never killed a person before, you know?"

Tyrone anxiously eyed the other Bloods members waiting by a trash-can just down the block. "Listen to me, fool. You need the money, right?"

"Yes."

"And you can't get it from nowhere else, right?" Tyrone asked demandingly.

Jacob slowly nodded his head, "Yeah."

Tyrone laughed, "Then I don't see what you're thinking about. Everyone involved is going to be getting nice big paychecks as soon as this is over. Now, I'm your friend, I had to call in a lot of favors to get you in on this. Don't make a fool out of me, now. Got it?"

"I got it." Jacob replied lowering his eyes in defeat.

"Wait, I see them leaving." Tyrone smiled and snapped his fingers signaling the other gang members to advance on the blue-clad gangsters. "Remember; don't stop shooting until they're dead."

The gunshots began to echo. The Bloods opened fire dropping two of the Crips with ease. The remaining four scrambled behind cars for cover. Jacob's hands trembled. "Shoot, man!" Tyrone roared over the scream of gunfire, "Do it!"

Everything seemed to be almost in a state of slow-motion. Jacob could almost see the bullets zipping dangerously through the air. He wanted to go home; he wanted to forget that this had ever happened. But he couldn't, this nightmare was all too real, something he had vowed to his father that he'd never be apart of. And here he was, breaking that vow. One of the Crips emerged from his cover, weapon-drawn, and Jacob almost instinctively aimed and pulled the trigger. The jolt of the gun shattered his heart and he immediately collapsed in horror. He knew he'd hit the Crip before the sound of flesh being torn ever reached his ears.

"That's it suckers!" Tyrone screamed, almost in a blood-lust, "I'll take you all down, son! I'll bust a cap in each of your heads."

"Stop it! I think my ears are bleeding. Jeez, I'll just assume that you guys were sleeping during English class." Spider-Man enveloped two of the gang members with a spray of webbing.

Tyrone grimaced while backing away from the web-slinger who clung to the side of a fire-escape, "It's Spider-Man, shoot him!"

Peter Parker; raised an eye-brow, "Shoot me? I know that I may not be very good at making first impressions but I didn't think I was that bad." He dodged a barrage of bullets with impossible ease. "Here, let me take those off your hands." Peter fired a number of web-lines within the span of less than two seconds and yanked the weapons away from their owners.

He jumped down onto the street. Immediately two gang-members armed with knives: one Bloods and the other Crips; advanced on him. With a leg-sweep Peter brought down the Blood, while he knocked the other unconscious with an elbow strike to the jaw. "It's nice to see that I'm such a unifying force for the city."

Tyrone and the final Crip attacked next and with a somersault kick they went down before they ever knew what hit them. Peter brushed his hands together and smiled, "Spider-Man: 338. Crime: 0." His spider-sense, acting as a sort of sonar at the moment, picked up the presence of a man running through an alley less that three blocks away. "Far be it for me to let him miss out on all the fun. The cops should be here soon boys, just rap or something." Peter fired a web-line and went off on the track of the lone escapee.

The Jacob Mason Home

Jacob entered his small apartment, his heart still pounding. "Oh my God, my God." He chanted trying to keep from falling apart and almost crashed down onto the sofa.

"Daddy, you're home?" A young eight year-old boy emerged quickly followed by his younger brother from their bedroom, "Why were out so late?"

"Children, come here." Jacob ordered with his arms outstretched which his children showed no hesitation in doing. "I've done something stupid. I'm sorry."

His youngest son began to cry, "What happened?"

Jacob began to cry, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry. Tell that to the guy you-." Peter interjected standing in the apartment beside an open window. He would have finished the sentence but he had just begun to realize the nature of his surrounding. The apartment was uncomfortably small; the smell of urine assaulted his nose from the dwelling below. One look at the children and he could see how gaunt they were: like skeletons. "Jesus."

The Parker Home

Mary Jane raised her eyes in alarm, "What happened?"

Peter sighed, "Well, the guy basically got on his knees and confessed to killing one of the Crips and then he pleaded with me, begging me not to take him to jail." He shook his head slowly, "That smell, I still vividly remember it."

"So, you did…what?"

He grimaced, obviously disappointed with himself, "I took him to jail."


	7. The Spider and the Man 2 of 3

Forgive the long delay in updating but I've been rather enjoying my Christmas presents as of late. :)

The Spider and the Man:

Issue Two of Three

Man

The Parker Home

"I still can't believe I did it." Peter remarked depressingly, "Those kids looked right at me as I took their dad away." He shook his head and rolled his head back until he faced the ceiling, "Their faces…I haven't seen that kind of expression since…Harry."

Mary Jane approached him with two cups of coffee in her hands, one of which she passed onto Peter. "Do you think that that you did the right thing?"

Peter sighed, "I don't know…I mean is my job just to haul them off? Should I have made an exception? When I first sewed this costume together, I was _fifteen_, I never in a million years thought I'd be dealing with stuff like this."

"Don't beat yourself up." Mary Jane responded.

"Well…that's not the end of it. You see, after I dropped their father at a police station, I called social services, for the kids." Peter shrugged, "And well, one day after I was done teaching at school, I decided I'd drop by and make sure they were okay."

Harlem several days ago

Spider-Man swung past the large tenement still trying to forget the day's worth of mathematical formulas and equations. Several pedestrians looked up and took noticed of the costumed hero in the sky, a sight not commonly seen in their little run-down neighborhood.

He'd been trying to forget this whole mess for the last two days. Peter had hoped that it would just fade out from his mind over time, that he could just block it out like some of the more ghastly sights he had witnessed during his career. But his conscience nagged at him at every turn. This was something that he had to see through.

Coming up on the apartment building, Peter fired a web-line and swung upward at amazing speed. At the peak of his swing, he released his hold of the line and with an overly flashy spiral landed on the apartment's rooftop. Silently, he crept across, careful not to alert the occupants of the homes below him to his presence.

Making his way over the ledge, he crawled along the exterior of the building towards the window he so fatefully had slipped in through that night; as he came up alongside it he peered into the apartment, again affronted by the stench of urine. Peter felt mocked.

The social worker who had been ordered to supervise them for the time being, an elderly women with gray frazzled hair, sat in a chair facing the television turned to an episode of Judge Judy. He could see the youngest brother playing with a small action figure in the corner with a rather dejected look about him.

"Hey, kid." The old woman barked, "Get me a beer from the fridge."

_Uh-oh_. Peter watched the child vanish from view while the social worker seemed to doze off for just a moment until the little boy returned and handed the woman her alcohol.

The old woman scornfully grabbed the beer and snapped her finger at the child, "Now get out of here, stupid, and clean the mess I made in the bathroom like I told you to!"

The Parker Home

Mary Jane frowned and grabbed Peter's hand, pulling the gloves off and placed them carefully on the ground, "Did you call social services about the problem?"

"As soon as I got to the nearest payphone." Peter responded with a war-torn expression across his face. "I went back another two days later. The new woman was little improvement. She wasn't as abusive to the youngest but she looked like she was popping pills."

"What about the older son?" MJ inquired.

"What?"

Mary Jane took a sip of her coffee as did Peter before elaborating, "You told me that there were two sons, so far you've only mentioned the younger one."

"Yeah." Peter replied staring into the swirls of his coffee.

"He's not much better off I suppose." MJ guessed to her husband's immediate nodding.

Putting the mug down onto the coffee table, Peter leaned back into the couch and rubbed his eyes slowly collecting himself again. "The second time I dropped by and found the new social worker, I noticed the older son wasn't home yet, so what I do is I start heading towards the nearest public school, it didn't take me very long to find him."

Several days ago in Harlem

A seventeen year-old accosted the young Isaiah Mason in the privacy of the alleyways that the latter took as a shortcut in between school and home. "Please, don't hit me!" He screamed behind tears shielding his face against the overwhelmingly more powerful teenager. "I don't even know you!"

"Your pops was one of the guys that killed my dad a couple of nights ago; do you know me now? Huh? Answer me you little piece of crap." The teenager threw the young child against an open dumpster.

Without warning, the teenager was suddenly lifted off the ground and hovered several feet in the air, screaming for dear life.

"Have you ever supposed that you are only adding to the ongoing cycle of violence?" Spider-Man asked for the right side of the alley holding the teen in place via expert use of his webbing. "The next time you decide to pick on a little kid, do me a favor, okay?"

The teen's eyes began to water, "Anything! Please! Don't kill me!"

Peter dangled him over the open dumpster, "Throw yourself out with the rest of the trash and save me the trouble, got it?" He dropped the marauding teen into the dumpster and with additional web-lines slammed it shut. _That should knock some sense into him until the webbing dissolves_. He dropped down into the alley, just a few feet shy of Isaiah, "How are you doing? You're okay?"

The young boy's eyes trembled with hatred, "You took my daddy away."

Peter turned away for a moment feeling Isaiah's words cut deeply into him, "Yeah, about that…" He clenched his jaw, "I don't know."

"I can get home now." The child declared defiantly and walked past him without so much as a second look.

"Well I have to hand it to you, Spidey." Peter began sadly, "You've royally screwed up this poor kid's life."

"Man, this sucks, let me out of here." A voice called out from inside the dumpster.

Peter grimaced and loudly slammed his hand against the side of it, "Quiet."


End file.
